Dear all, 

We are thrilled to announce the third edition of the Truly Global /L+/ summer/winter school on language acquisition.

WHEN: 24-28  August 2026 (Online) at two different time zones: 

1. Asia/Africa/Europe-friendly, 2. Africa/Europe/The Americas-friendly.

Participants from all time zones are welcome to join the session that best fits their schedule.

WEBSITE: https://www.lplusschool.org/home 

LINK FOR REGISTRATION: https://www.lplusschool.org/registration 

AIM: The Third truly Global /L+/ summer/winter school on language acquisition aims to promote knowledge about language acquisition and establish a global network of collaboration between researchers and students. Students will have the opportunity to learn about basic experimental and analytical methods to implement in their research studies, and discuss current theories and controversies in first language acquisition.

MOTIVATION: Although the ability to use language is universal in human cultures, there is a long-standing debate as to whether language develops in similar ways or whether it varies across populations and, if so, why. This debate would benefit from more studies including a variety of languages. However, to this date, articles published in top language acquisition journals only cover around 1.5% of the world’s languages (Kidd & Garcia, 2022). This gap is exacerbated by the fact that many talented students, teachers and researchers in underrepresented areas do not have access to specialist literature, research equipment, or international collaborative networks. The online /L+/ school on language acquisition aims at contributing to reducing this gap.

TUITION: Participation in the /L+/ school is free of charge.

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE: The school is aimed at students and researchers who are interested in expanding their knowledge on child language development, in monolingual or multilingual contexts. Students at all levels (BA – PhD) and early career researchers from all regions, but particularly Sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and South and Central America, are encouraged to participate. There are no prerequisites in terms of specific knowledge or skills.

TOPICS: The topics for this year’s practical sessions and lectures are:

Practical sessions

1. Conducting field research

Confirmed lecturers: Camilla Scaff (University of Zürich, Switzerland); Paul Omane (University of Paris, France)

2. Research methods (naturalistic and experimental)

Confirmed lecturers: Jekaterina Mazara (University of Zürich, Switzerland); Eon-Suk Ko (Chosun University, South Korea)

3. Data collection (naturalistic and experimental; free tools for programming an experiment (PsychoPy))

Confirmed lecturers: Martin Zettersten (University of California, USA)

4. Data processing and preprocessing

Confirmed lecturers: Joseph Coffey (Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris, France); Jens Roeser (Nottingham Trent University, UK); Shanley Allen (University of Kaiserslautern, Germany); 

5. Statistical data analysis

Confirmed lecturers: tbd

Lectures

1. Behavioral /quantitative methods on language acquisition

Confirmed lecturers: Marisa Casillas (University of Chicago, USA); Katherine Twomey (University of Manchester, UK)

2. Multilingualism

Confirmed lecturers: Virginia Marchman (Stanford University, USA)

3. Cross-linguistic studies

Confirmed lecturers: Sabine Stoll (University of Zürich, Switzerland); Thierry Nazzi (University of Paris, France)

4. Atypical development

Confirmed lecturers: Frenette Southwood (Stellenbosch University, South Africa)

5. Multimodality

Confirmed lecturers: Aylin Küntay (Koç University, Turkey)

On each day of the school, we will have one practical session of 2 hours per time zone. The two practical sessions will be different from each other, and students are welcome to attend both. Lectures and networking sessions will be scheduled around practical sessions in both time zones (stay tuned for the final schedule!). Each lecture will be followed by live discussion sessions with experts in the field.

STRUCTURE: The activities will develop in an online format; lectures and practical sessions will be taught live through video conference.

We are also working on providing local hubs in a few cities, where participants can go and attend the online events together. 

APPLY: You can apply for participation with a brief motivation statement (100 words) by following this link by July 3rd 2026. 

QUESTIONS?

CONTACT: language1.sum...@unipd.it 

We are looking forward to your registration! 

Best wishes, 

The Organization Team

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Alejandra Raisman (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM, México)

Alejandra Sadaniowski (Universidad Católica de las Misiones, Argentina)

Alma Luz Rodriguez Lazaro (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM, México)

Ana Estrada

Bhuvana Narasimhan (University of Colorado Boulder)

Caroline Rowland (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, The Netherlands)

Elisa Gottardi 

Eva Huber (University of Cologne, Germany)

Fei Ting Woon (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)

Felix Kpogo

Grace Ennim (University of Potsdam, Germany)

Ivan Bondoc (University of Toronto, Canada)

Janina Vargas (Universidad del País Vasco, Spain)

Lara Hamburger (University of Potsdam, Germany)

Lara Lanús Granada

Lawrence Mwangi Nduati (Aga Khan University, Kenya)

Leonardo Piot (University of Potsdam, Germany)

Leticia Schiavon Kolberg (University of Grenoble Alpes, France)

Line Kippe (University of Douala, Cameroon)

Magdalena Krysztofiak (University of Warsaw, Poland)

Maria Montefinese (Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, United States; University of Padova, Italy)

Michelle White (University of Oslo, Norway; Stellenbosch University, South Africa)

Nancy Estévez Pérez (Cuban Neurosciences Center)

Naomi Havron (University of Haifa, Israel)

Natalie Boll-Avetisyan (University of Potsdam, Germany)

Nurtimhar Shahaji (Western Mindanao State University)

Rida Ahmed (University of Groningen, The Netherlands)

Rodolphe Prosper Maah (University of Douala, Cameroon)

Rowena Garcia (Leibniz-Centre General Linguistics (ZAS Berlin), University of the Philippines Manila)

Silvia Benavides-Varela (University of Padova, Italy)